Advice for Active Duty Military

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SaltySailor

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Hello all,

Thanks for taking the time to read my post. I'm currently an officer in the US Navy with 2 years left on my contract. I'm interested in medical school, (American MD programs only), and do not intend to become a physician in the military once I get out.

Here's the bad news: I'm currently 27 and have a 2.9 GPA from a top 20 public college.

Other than scoring really high on the MCAT /going through a post bac program, what can I do now to make myself more attractive to medical schools while I'm still in the service?

Thanks for your time.

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Did you take the pre-reqs during college?

You could start shadowing military or civilian doctors if you haven't done that. You could also volunteer at the base clinic/hospital or a nearby civilian to get some clinical volunteer experience. Depending on what schools you're going to apply to (and whether they accept online credit) you could knock out a some of the pre-reqs online.

Also, I wouldn't count 27 as bad news. There's worse places to be in your mid-30's than starting residency…like in a cubicle anywhere.
 
If you are open to DO or MD, and you had any egregiously low grades in college, you might consider retaking them so as to invoke the AACOMAS (DO med school application service) grade forgiveness policy, where only the most recent grade counts provided the credit hours are the same or greater.

AMCAS (MD) schools count all the grades earned (including those on your military transcript, BTW, in case that helps), so retakes will still help, but not as much.
 
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Hello all,

Thanks for taking the time to read my post. I'm currently an officer in the US Navy with 2 years left on my contract. I'm interested in medical school, (American MD programs only), and do not intend to become a physician in the military once I get out.

Here's the bad news: I'm currently 27 and have a 2.9 GPA from a top 20 public college.

Other than scoring really high on the MCAT /going through a post bac program, what can I do now to make myself more attractive to medical schools while I'm still in the service?

Thanks for your time.

Not sure if you're on the ship or in garrison, but I took a night CC course while I was still in. Other posters mention the DO grade replacement policy and I would definitely consider it. You could target your CC courses to specifically retake those courses you did worst in.

Also, when it comes to the post 9/11 GI bill, it can be used for medical school. The key is to get into a state school as it will pay the full amount (if you're a resident, which many states allow you to rapidly establish residency when you leave service). This is a little harder for the DO schools as there's not as many.
 
What options would best suit you depends on whether or not you've taken the prerec classes already. If you haven't and do well, you can probably bring up your gpa a bit through taking them (CC, online non-lab ones, local university--you could probably start now or next summer). If you have taken them already, you could try a post-bac program when you separate. It's a good way to show schools you've matured and are able to handle the classes. If you'd be willing to go DO, they will replace grades in retaken classes (so, a few C's from undergrad taken for A's now will count only as A's on the application). If it's a few classes dragging down your gpa (such as a bad semester or first year), I'd suggest the DO grade replacement if you don't want to commit to a full post-bac program. If it's a lot of classes with B's, it might be wiser to do the post-bac route.

It's definitely possible, and you have plenty of time :) A good 20% of my class was late twenties when they started.
 
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